WASHINGTON, July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Armand Feigenbaum, who is a renowned business effectiveness pioneer and works with many of the

world's major corporations to help them improve their product
and service offerings, is keynoting the "Transforming Government:
Putting People and Quality First" conference today at the
Washington Hilton & Towers, where he will address how government
agencies can more effectively and efficiently provide services to U.S.
citizens.

Feigenbaum, who will speak following Vice President Gore's opening remarks, will detail the challenges facing federal workers. "The requirement is to fully meet America's upward expectations for higher levels of federal services while addressing downward budgetary pressures required by deficit reduction," says Feigenbaum. "Instituting total quality initiatives gives us a major tool in achieving this goal."
According to Feigenbaum, the challenge facing the federal government has existed for a long time. "Admirably intentioned public sector improvement programs from the Hoover to Grace Commissions died and were buried without autopsy." He does not blame the bureaucracy. "The problem with these past initiatives is that they took ideas from the boss's heads, cheerleaded with speeches and seminars to seek acceptance. This will never be successful," says Feigenbaum.
"Fundamental improvement only comes from utilizing the knowledge, skills and attitudes about the freedom to innovate, about solving problems democratically, about the value of teamwork that the great majority of men and women who work already bring to their job because of the basic traditions of American life," says Feigenbaum.
Welcoming the strong commitment of the Clinton administration for America's federal government management improvement, Feigenbaum says "Such strong leadership is the key to improved service quality."
In his speech, Feigenbaum will say that three infrastructure problems exist that will, if not addressed, continue to slow quality improvement of American business and government. First, full recognition of the changes in fundamental human values and expectations is required. "The American taxpayer has an escalating quality expectation for his or her public sector services from federal institutions. Today consumers believe that the public and private sectors should provide essentially perfect quality service when managed correctly," according to Feigenbaum. Second, educational programs need to include quality as a fundamental national economic and social policy determinant. "Quality is just plain not taught as a serious area in economics today," he said. Third, quality improvement long targeted to manufacturing sectors is now only entering the service sector. "While there are notable exceptions, some sectors of the service economy are still out-of-touch with American values, employee attitudes and management approaches," he says.
"Quality of federal service is what the American taxpayer says it is -- not what federal institutions say it is," claims Feigenbaum. "This principle needs to be fully recognized."
According to Feigenbaum, the government needs to adopt five characteristics to be successful:
1. Leadership with a clear improvement vision.
2. Relentless identification of goals required for full achievement
of improvement.
3. Empowerment of individuals throughout the federal government
promoting openness, communications and the environment for
individual job entrepreneurship.
4. Development and installation of teamwork management processes
that each and every man and woman in the government understands,
believes in and come to be part of.
5. Measurement of improvements in terms of user service quality
satisfaction, cost effectiveness and human resource utilization
to ensure correct management.
General Systems, headquartered in Pittsfield, Mass., is an international firm whose business is accelerating the profitability and business effectiveness of major manufacturing and service corporations worldwide by helping them reform those areas of the corporation fundamental to the achievement of greater competitive advantage, increased productivity and reduced costs. General Systems customers are in the U.S., Europe, Asia and South America.
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/CONTACT: Erika Freed or Carl Nelson, both of RUDER-FINN, 212-715-1538, or 212-715-1593, for General Systems/

CO: General Systems ST: Massachusetts IN: SU:

BM -- CL020 -- 3960 07/21/93 12:57 EDT

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